Digital Code of Conduct

Preamble

We offer users on our blog as well as on our social media profiles, for example LinkedIn, the ability to engage in a dialog with us and comment on our posts. We look forward to your input. We do need to establish a few ground rules, however, in order to protect third parties, to comply with legal obligations, and in the interest of a fair and democratic discussion culture that ultimately benefits everyone. These rules result from the following Terms of Use.

Comments

Users have the ability to comment on blog posts in writing. Uploading files or other media is not possible.
Our editorial staff will review each comment to ensure it complies with applicable law prior to approving and posting it on the site. In the event of a violation of applicable legal provisions or any of the following rules, we will not approve it and not post it. Comments will be approved and posted in our sole discretion and we are under no obligation to approve or post any comment.

To submit your comment, you will to provide us with your name and e-mail address.
Our posts on platforms such as LinkedIn, Xing, and YouTube can be shared, commented on, and rated if the respective platform provides the technical means to do so. In this context, we call upon all users to interact with each other in an open, friendly manner and with courtesy, respect, and mutual consideration.

Content, Responsibility, and Obligations of the Individual Posting a Comment

You are solely responsible for any content you create yourself. Your comment should be related to the post you are commenting on, should not be objectively defamatory, or otherwise contain any inappropriate language.

You are not permitted to post references or links to services of other competing platforms or otherwise promote competitors’ products and/or competing companies. We reserve the right to delete any repetitive comments (spam) or comments that we deem to be off-topic. This ensures that the discussion is related to the topic and that all those participating in the discussion benefit from it.

We reserve the right to delete comments that contain untrue statements, misrepresentations, or that violate a provision of these Terms of Use. In case of repeated violations, the user can expect to be barred from further use.

Usage Rights and Copyrights

When posting a comment, you grant us a simple, unrestricted right to use the content, throughout the universe, in perpetuity. The aforementioned rights include, in particular, the right of the provider to reproduce the content and to publish the content elsewhere (such as for marketing purposes, for example).

Third Party Rights/Applicable Law

Respect the rights of third parties. For example, do not post photos of people who have not explicitly agreed to them being posted, or without the photographer’s permission if you did not take the photo yourself.
You guarantee that you are the owner of any rights granted and that you are authorized to legally grant us the aforementioned rights. In addition, you guarantee that the comments do not infringe the rights of third parties or otherwise violate applicable law.

You also guarantee that the content is already publicly available and that the author, unless you yourself are the author of the comment, will not take any legal action against it being posted.
Posting comments that violate the personal rights of third parties or other applicable law is not permitted. This particularly applies to comments with content that is:

Racist or sexist
Hateful
Harmful to minors
Pornographic
Defamatory
Offensive
Xenophobic
Discriminatory
Glorifies violence
Otherwise punishable by law

We reserve the right to immediately delete comments that violate the aforementioned rules or other rules contained in these Terms of Use and to report them to the platform operators or, in extreme cases, to law enforcement authorities.

Applicable Law and Jurisdiction

These Terms of Use are subject to and construed exclusively in accordance with the laws of the Federal Republic of Germany. The Contracts for the International Sale of Goods does not apply. If you post a comment as a consumer and at that time reside in another country, the application that country’s mandatory legal provisions remains unaffected by the aforementioned choice of applicable law.

If you post your comment as a representative of a company and your workplace is located in Germany at the time the comment is submitted, the local or regional courts of Wedel, Germany will have jurisdiction over any and all claims or disputes arising from these Terms of Use. In all other cases, the applicable statutory provisions will apply with respect to local and international jurisdiction.

Final provisions

We collect, save electronically, modify, and transmit personal data to process orders.

If several individuals submit a comment together, they are hereby deemed to be joint debtors and/or creditors.
If there are differences between the German version of these Terms of Use and a version in another language, the German version will prevail.

If any provision of these Terms of Use is held to be invalid, illegal, or unenforceable, the validity, legality, and enforceability of the remaining provisions will not in any way be affected or impaired thereby. In this case, the parties agree to replace it with a valid, legal, and enforceable provision that comes as close as possible to the intended purpose of the provision being replaced in economic and legal terms. The same applies to unintentional gaps (severability clause).